As we increasingly liberalize cannabis laws businesses that do business in cannabis need to be able to bank. Yet many legislators, and sadly many supposedly “small government” Republican legislators, have made banking as difficult as possible for the emerging industry. They want government in the way of commerce. How “conservative.”

These Republicans should be ashamed that someone like Senator Warren is more sensible on this issue than they are.

(From Marijuana.com)

In addition to adding her name to the note about financial services for cannabis businesses, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) has separately taken a leadership role in the push to allow people who use marijuana legally in accordance with state policies to purchase guns, something that’s currently against federal law. To date, Cornyn hasn’t weighed in on that issue.

The other problem is that polling now consistently shows that legalizing marijuana earns far more voter support than either Republicans or Democrats in Congress do. Thus, the notion that Warren’s work on banking access for cannabis businesses is the reason that Hillary Clinton lost the White House or that her party failed to take control of the House or Senate in the most recent election doesn’t seem to comport with political reality.

A top aide to Republican Sen. Rand Paul (KY) pointed out as much, tweeting to Cornyn that Democrats aren’t losing elections because of marijuana but that the “GOP might if more don’t get into [the]21st century.”